Method and system for a personalized content dissemination platform

ABSTRACT

The disclosure provides a method and corresponding system for personalizing and disbursing content material in an automated fashion based on differing characteristics or profiles of the recipients. The system includes a database of potential recipients with key characteristics such as location data, revenue, product ownership, customer status, tenure with the company/organization, payment status, credit rating, whether they have recently responded to other material, and the like. Dissemination media include email communications, collaterals, brochures, textual materials, image and video information, and any similar media, where the contents of the communication material is customized based on the key characteristics profiles of the recipients and driven by a set of business rules that can be adapted to fit various scenarios.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.11/180,212, filed Jul. 13, 2005, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,738,702, which isherein incorporated by reference in its entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure generally relates to data processing for automatedsystems, and in particular it relates to automated business andmarketing communications programs.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Companies or other organizations often have a need to communicatecontent material (such as marketing promotions, announcements, trainingdocumentation, operations methods and procedures, special brochures, andthe like) to its current and prospective customers or members.Presently, generalized communications may be readily assembled withoutvariation and sent to a group of intended recipients in an automatedfashion. However, and frequently, a single communication may not beuniversally applicable to each and every intended recipient in thegroup, or additional information may need to be given to certain of theindividual recipients. For example, one may wish to send promotionalmaterials regarding price discounts in such a way that current higherrevenue customers receive offers with a larger discount. Similarly, onemay wish to send brochures or other material that is different forrecipients in different geographical locations.

In such instances, it is possible to include personalized content forone or more recipients in a group in today's mass communication systems,but this involves a good deal of manual work, including separating thecontent and confirming that the right material goes to the correctrecipient. These manual processes can be costly, slow, and limit theoverall throughput of communications for an organization. In addition tothe issue of personalizing outbound, communications, companies andorganizations often have a problem linking any recipient responses tothe outgoing information that prompted the response.

Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for personalizedcontent dissemination that addresses certain problems of existingtechnologies.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure, therefore, introduces a method and apparatus fordisseminating content based on stored profile information of recipientsof a communication. The communication includes fixed information that istransmitted to all recipients of the communication, as well as variableinformation that is included in separate versions of the communicationbased on the profile data of individual recipients. A communication isgenerated according to customization rules applied to profile dataavailable for each recipient, and then individual versions of thecommunication having the appropriate fixed and variable data aretransmitted to individual recipients. After a response to thecommunication is received from a recipient, the response is analyzed anda subsequent communication may be generated and transmitted to thatrecipient based on the response and the profile data of that recipient.

The disclosed processes are particularly suited to marketing andpromotions materials, including those providing offers fortelecommunications products and services, but may be applied and adaptedto any of a variety of commercial uses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further aspects of the present disclosure will be more readilyappreciated upon review of the detailed description of its variousembodiments, described below, when taken in conjunction with theaccompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary computer architecture over which the processes ofthe present disclosure may be performed;

FIG. 2 is a diagram of exemplary software modules that may be used toimplement the processes of the present disclosure using the computerarchitecture of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of an exemplary personalized content disseminationprocess that may be performed by the software modules of FIG. 2 usingthe computer architecture of FIGS. 1; and

FIG. 4 is a depiction of an exemplary communication containing fixed andvariable data generating by the process of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE SPECIFIC EMBODIMENTS

Referring now to FIGS. 1-4, wherein similar components of the presentdisclosure are referenced in like manner, various embodiments of amethod and system for personalized content dissemination are disclosed.

As more and more customer information is captured or availableelectronically, an organization can utilize a computer system asdisclosed herein that allows for automatic dissemination of contentmaterials, which may be customized or personalized for individualrecipients based on any stored profile data or as otherwise desired byan operator of the computer system. The computer system may include aset of hardware and software components that provide flexibility,scaling, and extensibility with regard to any form of communicationmedia. By automatically profiling recipients and generating contentaccording to customizable rules, a particularly expensive problem thatis common to many businesses is readily solved. Moreover, the computersystem allows for tracking and capture of responses from recipients,thereby providing an effective way to monitor the effectiveness of acommunication or related promotion.

Turning now to FIG. 1, there is depicted a block diagram of an exemplarycomputer system architecture 100 for implementing the methods disclosedherein. The computer system architecture 100 may be implemented insoftware having programmed instructions in a machine-readable language,which are stored in internal or external memory of a computer and areexecuted by a processor thereof. The computer may be a single computingdevice, such as an enterprise network server, or a centralized ordistributed group of computers, any of which may be of the type commonlymanufactured by COMPAQ, HEWLETT-PACKARD, IBM, APPLE and SUN. Suchcomputers may use any one or more of the following operating systems:IBM OS/2 WARP 3 AND 4, LINUX, MAC OS, UNDC, SCO UNIX, SUN SOLARIS, andWINDOWS 3.1/95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP. The databases employed by suchcomputers for storing the data required by the processes disclosedherein may include: ORACLE, SAP, INFORMDC, SYBASE, MICROSOFT SQL,MICROSOFT EXCHANGE, DB2 and LOTUS NOTES. Programmed instructions forperforming the processes disclosed herein may be authored in any of thefollowing software environments: FLASH, JAVA, and hyper-text mark-uplanguage (HTML). Such programmed instructions may also be provided inany of the wide variety of programming languages commonly used by thoseof ordinary skill in the art.

In one exemplary embodiment provided herein, the programmed instructionsmay be generated as a group of co-operative software modules, eachhaving its dedicated functions. The descriptions of such modules willallow one of ordinary skill in the art to readily appreciate theprogramming instructions required for implementing the disclosedprocesses herein. However, the programmed instructions themselves can beimplemented in wide array of ways, depending, for example, on theoperating system and software applications/environments selected, aswell as on designer preference.

The various databases and software modules of the computer systemarchitecture 100 may be linked together as shown in FIG. 1. Thedatabases may include: a target list and profile data repository 104, araw target list 106 and a content repository 110. The raw target list106 may be a database of all customers and potential customers, and mayinclude some basic level of information such as customer name, locationand contact information.

The target list and profile data repository 104 may contain moredetailed information for one or more of the customers and potentialcustomers in the raw target list 104. The detailed information mayinclude characteristics of each target customer, such as: an annualincome, a purchase r transaction history, prior products and servicespurchased, a credit rating and a response history to priorcommunications. Further detailed information may likewise be used.

The content repository 110 may include content for communications to besent to target recipients by the automated computer system architecture100. Such content may include text, graphics, audio, visual andaudio-visual content and formatting instructions for communications, allof which may be provided in any of a variety of useful electronicformats. In certain embodiments, the content may include a networkaddress of or a hyperlink to an electronic file containing desiredcontent. In certain further embodiments, the content may include anidentification of a paper brochure or the like.

The data repositories 104, 106 and 110 above are operated upon by thesoftware modules of the computer system architecture 100, which mayinclude: a communication target list generation module 102, acommunication content creation module 108, a personalization rules andinterface module 118, a communication material creation module 120, anda rules adapter module 126, all of which are described immediatelybelow. A target list creation rules and interface module 112, contentcreation rules and interface module 114, personalization engine 116,communication delivery channel interface 122, and communication responsetracking interface 124 will be described in more detail later below withrespect to FIG. 2.

The communication target list generation module 102 includes programminginstructions for creating a target list for a particular communicationby identifying a group of recipients having desired characteristics fromthe target list and profile data repository 104. The module 112 alsoincludes an analytical engine for scoring and segmenting recipientsaccording to their characteristics. For example, a recipient having ahigh annual income will receive a higher score than a recipient with alower annual income. The scoring may be based on any other storedcharacteristics as well as on any history of previous responses receivedfrom the recipient for previous communications, as reported by thecommunication response tracking module 124. The manner for scoring maybe accomplished in any of a variety of useful manners that will bereadily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, and scores andmanners of scoring may be continuously adjusted over time based on newinformation. The functions of the communication target list generationmodule 102 are accessed by a user through the target list creation rulesand interface module 112, described later below.

The communication content creation module 108 includes programminginstructions for allowing a user to create content for one or morecommunications, and for storing such content or identifications ofcontent within the content repository 110. A user may access thecommunication content creation features through the content creationrules and interface module 114, described later below. The communicationcontent creation module 108 allows for the creation of communicationshaving fixed data that is common to all recipients of a communication,and variable data that may vary with each recipient based on stored inthe target list and profile data repository 104. For example, the fixeddata may include formatting instructions and common text for an e-mailmessage to be distributed to a group of users. The variable data may bethe name of a recipient, which will be placed in a designated field ofthe communication, and will be retrieved from a recipient name field orthe like in the target list and profile data repository 104.

The personalization rules and interface module 118 includes programminginstructions for allowing a user to establish rules for personalizingcontent to be distributed to an individual recipient or subset of targetrecipients. Such rules may include, for example, allowing a user toenter a personal message, perhaps of limited length, to a recipient withwhich the user has had prior dealings. This may be accomplished bypresenting a dialog box in which the user is asked to confirmconformance to this rule before the personal message is entered. Any ofa variety of additional rules may also be employed. The personalizationrules and interface module informs the personalization engine 116,described later below, to generate personalized messages within acommunication to be distributed to a group of recipients.

The communication material creation module 120 contains programminginstructions for combining information from the communication targetlist generation module 102, the communication content creation module108 and the personalization engine 116 to generate a communicationhaving fixed data, variable data and personalized information to bedistributed to the group of recipients.

The rules adapter module 126 contains programming instructions formodifying the target list creation rules based on responses tracked bythe communication response tracking module 124, described later below.For example, if the response to a widely distributed communication doesnot meet a set threshold response rate, then the rule adapter module 126may change one or more variables in the target list creation rules inorder to attempt to achieve a larger response with a futurecommunication. This may be accomplished in an automated fashion or byprompting a user to enter new rules and values therefor.

Turning now to FIG. 2, therein is depicted a detailed implementation 200of the following software modules of the computer system architecture100. The target list creation rules and interface module 112 containsprogramming instructions allowing a user to enter objectives for acommunication, such as assigning a communication to be distributed torecipients having certain desired characteristics. Historical profileand characteristics may be obtained from existing enterprise systems(i.e., from information stored by marketing, customer relationship,billing, customer care, human resource, and or other departments of anorganization. The characteristics data may also be obtained from thirdparty information sources, such as credit bureaus and the like. Themodule 112 also may apply data mining techniques for scoring andsegmentation of recipients to identify quality prospective targets forthe communication.

The communication content creation module 1.14 provides a customizeduser interface to authoring applications (i.e., MICROSOFT OFFICEapplications) to enable generation and storage of fixed and variabledata for one or more communications. The module 114 allows for thecreation of dynamic content templates that, for example, merge staticmarketing messages and the like with dynamic target profile andcharacteristic data. The content is stored in content repository 110 tofacilitate collaboration, integration and management. The module 110 mayutilize a rule-based work flow for content review, approval andrejection prior to storing content in the repository 110.

The communication personalization engine 116 contains programminginstructions and a user interface for allowing a user to personalizecontent based on target profile, historical response, third partyintelligence, and the like. Personalized content may include changingthe “look and feel” of a communication based on gender, title,historical response, or other characteristic data. Communications may befurther personalized according to a preferred delivery channel based ofthe recipient, as determined by the recipient's preference or historicalresponse. Various rule-based methodologies may also be applied toautomate and optimize personalization of communications.

The content delivery channel interface 122 contains programminginstructions and a user interface for allowing communications to bepublished according tot a preferred delivery channel. Communication maybe transmitted using the Internet, in order to minimize budget andautomate response capture. In such embodiments, the communications maytake the form of an electronic mail or instant message. Alternatively,or in addition thereto, the communications may take the form of papercollateral or outbound calls via an IVRU or call center to improveresponse rates.

The adaptive communication fulfillment module 202 may be optionallyprovided to generate sample target list for limited trial to previewpotential results of a communication and analyze trial responses toprovide critical information for communication strategy adjustment, asnecessary. The module 202 utilizes a rule-based methodology to automateadaptive fulfillment process, adjust content and delivery channel asnecessary.

The communication response tracking module 124 contains programminginstructions for identifying and tracking responses from recipients andgenerating any desired reports relating thereto. For each communication,the module 124 may track the number of communications sent, the numberof responses received, the number of positive/negative responsesreceived, the number of follow-up messages sent, the number of responsesto follow-up messages, and any sales or the like resulting from thecommunications. The module 124 may calculate any of a variety of usefulstatistics regarding the response, which may be used by an organizationto evaluate the effectiveness of a message and make any requiredadjustments thereto. The module 124 may classify un-structured response(such as free form email) via text mining and parsing techniques.Responses may also be entered by users within the organization who havereceived responses directly from any recipient. Real time statistics maybe provided by the module 124 upon request by a user.

The response channel interface 204 contains an interface to any callcenters, IVRU servers, e-mail servers, or a user for receiving data onresponses that have been received by these entities from any of therecipients of a communication.

Turning now to FIG. 3, there is depicted the steps of an exemplarypersonalized content dissemination process 300 as may be performed bythe computer system architecture 100. The process 300 begins when a usergenerates a target list of recipients for a particular communicationusing the target list creation rules and interface 112 (step 302).

The fixed information for the communication is then retrieved from thecontent repository 110 (step 304). The fixed data may include formattinginstructions or a template for the communication, and text or othercontent that is common to all versions of the communications to be sent.

Next, the variable information for individual versions of thecommunication are retrieved from the target list and profile datarepository 104 (step 306). The variable information may be inserted intodesignated fields of the communication, and may include a name of therecipient, an address of the recipient, and the like. The variable datamay also include individualized information, such as an offer that isprovided only to certain recipients having desired characteristics. Thevariable data may also include personalized messages for one or moreintended recipients, as may be generated through the personalizationengine 116 described above.

Next, at step 308, the communication with fixed and variable data istransmitted to the recipients through the appropriate communicationchannel (such as e-mail, interactive voice response unit (IVRU)telephone call, instant message, paper mailing, and the like). Thecomputer system architecture 100 may interface with other systems, suchas existing e-mail servers, automated mass mailing assembly systems,IVRU servers and the like to accomplish the distribution ofcommunications.

At step 310, the communication response tracking module 124 tracks anyresponses received for the communication sent to the group ofrecipients. The module 124 may include interfaces for users to enter anyincidences of responses received from a recipient, or may be programmedto track any incoming e-mail messages or electronic or telephoniccommunications from an address or telephone number of a recipient of acommunication.

Next, at step 312, the communication response tracking, module updatesprofile data in repository 104 and may generate reports periodically oron demand based on communications sent and the number and types ofresponses received from recipients. Response types may be determinedbased on entries of users within the organization who review theresponse, or may, in the case of electronic communications, bedetermined using any of a variety of known text parsing algorithms andthe like to determine if the response is positive or negative.

Finally, at step 314, a follow-up (e.g., a second or subsequent) messagemay be automatically generated or established by a user in reply to theresponse from the recipient Multiple communications can be delivered totargeted audience based on the response from the initial marketingmessage in this manner. For instance, if a potential customer isinterested in product. A based on a received response to an initialmarketing communication, then subsequent messages can be targeted to thesame potential customers, and may be delivered at any future time. Suchfollow-up messages may include an invitation to a future trade show,seminar or product demonstration that is geographically convenient forthe potential customer.

Referring now to FIG. 4, therein is depicted exemplary content material400 generated using the computer system architecture 100. The contentmaterial 400 may include any include fixed and variable text data andmay take the form of an e-mail communication, an instant message orpaper mailing. The content material 400 can be static in presentation ormay contain multi-media images and sounds. The content material 400 maybe provided in any of a variety of useful electronic formats.

Prior technologies have failed to provide a content dissemination systemthat automatically profiles recipients from a target list subject todefinable rules (which can be specified in a user-friendly manner),develop communication materials with fixed and variable data based onstored profile data, and provide closed-loop tracking of responses tomarketing communications and follow-up messages thereto. The commercialbenefit of the content dissemination system is both (i) reduced costsfor sending personalized content material to groups of recipients and(ii) potentially increased revenues from more effective marketingcommunications using the disclosed system.

It is readily contemplated that there will exist many other ways toimplement the processes introduced herein, for example by using avariety of equivalent hardware and software components to accomplishsubstantially the same functionality. Although the best methodologieshave been particularly described in the foregoing disclosure, it is tobe understood that such descriptions have been provided for purposes ofillustration only, and that other variations both in form and in detailcan be made thereupon by those skilled in the art without departing fromthe spirit and scope thereof, which is defined first and foremost by theappended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for transmitting a communication,comprising: storing, by a processor, characteristics data for aplurality of consumers, the characteristics data comprising an annualincome and a credit rating for each of the plurality of consumers;generating, by the processor, the communication for dissemination to theplurality of consumers, the communication comprising a marketingmessage, the communication including fixed data that is presented toeach of the plurality of consumers and variable data that is based onthe characteristics data of each consumer receiving the communication,the fixed data comprising a marketing message, the variable datacomprising information on a specific marketing offer, the specificmarketing offer comprising an offer of a specific product, thecommunication comprising a telephonic communication; presenting, by theprocessor, an option to a human user to insert a personal message in thecommunication for a first consumer of the plurality of consumers,wherein the personal message is personalized to the first consumer,wherein the personal message satisfies a conformance rule, wherein thepersonal message is certified as conforming to the conformance rulebefore the personal message is entered in the communication, wherein thecertifying conformance to the conformance rule comprises confirming fromthe user that the personal message does not exceed a predeterminedlength before the personal message is inserted in the communication; andtransmitting, by the processor, the communication to the first consumer,wherein the communication is transmitted to the first consumer includingthe personal message.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:receiving, by the processor, a response to the communication from thefirst consumer.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the response comprisesa command entered into an interactive voice response unit by the firstconsumer.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the specific productcomprises a telecommunications product.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising: transmitting, by the processor, a subsequentcommunication to the first consumer, wherein the subsequentcommunication comprises an invitation to attend a demonstration relatingto the specific product.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein thedemonstration is to be presented in a geographic location that is localto the first consumer.
 7. A method for transmitting a marketingcommunication, comprising: storing, by a processor, profile data for aplurality of recipients; storing, by the processor, a template for themarketing communication, the template comprising a marketing message,the template including universal information that is transmitted to allrecipients of the marketing communication, the marketing communicationcomprising a telephonic communication; storing, by the processor, aplurality of sets of variable information to be included in themarketing communication based on the profile data of an individualrecipient of the plurality of recipients, the profile data comprising anannual income and a credit rating for each of the plurality ofrecipients, where each of the plurality of sets of variable informationcomprises information on a specific marketing offer, the specificmarketing offer comprising an offer of a specific product; presenting,by the processor, an option to a human user to insert a personal messagein the marketing communication for a first recipient of the plurality ofrecipients, wherein the personal message is personalized to the firstrecipient, wherein the personal message satisfies a conformance rule,wherein the personal message is certified as conforming to theconformance rule before the personal message is entered in the marketingcommunication, wherein the certifying conformance to the conformancerule comprises confirming from the human user that the personal messagedoes not exceed a predetermined length before the personal message isinserted in the communication; and transmitting, by the processor, themarketing communication to the first recipient of the plurality ofrecipients, the marketing communication including a first set of theplurality of sets of variable information based on the profile datacorresponding to the first recipient and including the personal message.8. The method of claim 7, further comprising: transmitting, by theprocessor, the marketing communication to a second recipient of theplurality of recipients, the marketing communication including a secondset of the plurality of sets of variable information based on theprofile data corresponding to the second recipient.
 9. The method ofclaim 7, further comprising: receiving a response to the marketingcommunication from the first recipient.
 10. The method of claim 9,wherein the response comprises a command entered into an interactivevoice response unit by the first recipient.
 11. The method of claim 7,wherein the specific product comprises a telecommunications product. 12.The method of claim 7, further comprising: transmitting, by theprocessor, a subsequent communication to the first recipient, whereinthe subsequent communication comprises an invitation to attend ademonstration relating to the specific product.
 13. The method of claim12, wherein the demonstration is to be presented in a geographiclocation that is local to the first recipient.
 14. An apparatus fortransmitting a marketing communication, comprising: a processor; and amemory storing: profile data for a plurality of recipients; a templatefor the marketing communication, the template comprising a marketingmessage, the template including universal information that istransmitted to all recipients of the marketing communication, themarketing communication comprising a telephonic communication; sets ofvariable information to be included in the marketing communication basedon the profile data of individual recipients, the profile data ofindividual recipients comprising an annual income and a credit ratingfor each of the plurality of recipients, where each of the sets ofvariable information comprises information on a specific marketingoffer, the specific marketing offer comprising an offer of a specificproduct; and a plurality of processing instructions which, when executedby the processor, cause the processor to perform operations, theoperations comprising: presenting an option to a human user to insert apersonal message in the marketing communication for a first recipient ofthe plurality of recipients, wherein the personal message ispersonalized to the recipient, wherein the personal message satisfies aconformance rule, wherein the personal message is certified asconforming to the conformance rule before the personal message isentered in the marketing communication; wherein the certifyingconformance to the conformance rule comprises confirming from the humanuser that the personal message does not exceed a predetermined lengthbefore the personal message is inserted in the marketing communication;and transmitting the marketing communication to the recipient of theplurality of recipients, the marketing communication including a set ofthe sets of variable information based on the profile data correspondingto the recipient and including the personal message.
 15. The apparatusof claim 14, further comprising: transmitting the marketingcommunication to a second recipient of the plurality of recipients, themarketing communication including a second set of the plurality of setsof variable information based on the profile data corresponding to thesecond recipient.
 16. The apparatus of claim 14, further comprising:receiving a response to the marketing communication from the firstrecipient.
 17. The apparatus of claim 16, wherein the response comprisesa command entered into an interactive voice response unit by the firstrecipient.
 18. The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the specific productcomprises a telecommunications product.
 19. The apparatus of claim 14,further comprising: transmitting a subsequent communication to the firstrecipient, wherein the subsequent communication comprises an invitationto attend a demonstration relating to the specific product.
 20. Theapparatus of claim 19, wherein the demonstration is to be presented in ageographic location that is local to the first recipient.